Well I decided on the cat and bought it today. I will be testing it in the morning when we go duck hunting. I will be able to compare it to my brother's 500 Polaris Ho in the morning, we will both be running stock tires, so there should be no real difference in tires I hope I am able to stay with him, I will let ya'll know tommorrow how it goes

 

Find a nice big mud hole and your bro will be behind you for sure....gettin' pulled out

 

Well I had no problem this morning with the Cat it went through everything my brother's 500 Polaris went through with out any problem, it really was not that bad I did go through one were he got stuck yesterday in but he had two people on his when he did, He was ahead of me this morning so he passed the hole this morning and did not go back through by himself, but he proably would have made it. Overall I was pleased with the Cat, I ran it in high first most of the way we were running in about two feet of water and mud never did go to low range, never needed it. All in all I am very pleased with my decision to go with the cat.

 

welcome to the club!!! i m sure you'll get years of good use out of the cat

 

Big James,
I second Big Johns comment. Welcome to the club.
Why did you decide on the Cat, instead of something else?
I bought over the Rincon and the Polaris. I liked the IRS and the ground clearance. Mine is a 2002. I also liked the simplicity of the Cat. Darn thing sure is big, isn't it? The dealer delivered it to me, it looked scary on a trailer, sitting a coul\ple of feet higher than is already is.
I really hope you enjoy it. Keep us posted.

 

Welcome to the group! My 500i has been everything I wanted, and more.

We had a lot of rain in KY last week, and I had a fairly large oak tree fall down on a hillside. Sawed it up (oak is HARD WOOD!), and used the Cat to haul the larger (2 feet thick) logs off of the hillside. Needed the winch in one or two tough spots, but overall, the Cat pulls a lot better than you might think, the bigger logs were over 500 pounds. Try that with one of those electronic glitzo-quads!

--John

 

JohnO,
Do you do a lot of logging with your Cat? I found an ATV logging supplier on the web. It is www.novajack.com . I do not work for them. I just thought it might interest you. Frankly I think they have some pretty wild stuff there.

 

Well CrashmanWV, I decided on the cat for the ground clearance and the manual shift option with the IRS, I like the ideal of having the manual transmission with the high and low range, personally I felt that this machine as much low end torque as any other machine, and that was what I was looking for. Normally, when we are duckhunting we tote two people to a bike I wanted something that had plenty of low end torque to pull two people, I like the manual shift over the automatic because range of gears to choose from.

 

Congradulations! About 1 year ago I bought the 400i and love it. I had to wait about 1 month for delivery. A couple of my friends did not wait and bought other bikes. I only have two regrets. 1. I wish I had waited for the 500. 2. I wish it had a no slip front drive. I have had mine stuck several times. Get the winch! With the awesome suspension on these things you don't pick them up and move them, forget it if mud is involved. I look forward to hear what you have to say.

Also my first outing was duck hunting. If you are hauling in the back of your truck be very careful. The front bumper is very high and pointed. I busted out my back window on the first trip. I now use a trailer.

 

Crashman -

Pretty cool stuff on that site, wish I had one of those trailers! When they don't publish the price, it ain't gonna be cheap...

I got the Cat trailer last week, and the 500i will pull it loaded with oak or walnut, and you hardly notice the load. Looking at the frame, it shouldn't be a problem to take off the bucket and replace it with a stake/flatbed, to haul more. I have about 150 acres of steep hills/hardwood forest, about all I do is clear fallen trees and get firewood - plenty of that. Managed to carve out a 3 mile trail, fun on the Cat, downright challenging on a mountain bike. So far, I've cut up three oak and two walnut trees that were down, and hauled the big logs into a barn. Not sure what I'll do with them, but that wood was too beautiful to sit out there and rot. Just spotted a 30' white walnut that had fallen into the creek, that should make an interesting weekend project.

I've also noticed that the Cat can haul passengers with no problem at all. I've hauled two big guys on the racks, up a hill, and it didn't bottom out.

--John